Telecommunications systems, cable televisions systems, and data communication networks use communication networks to rapidly convey large amounts of information between remote points. A communication network may include network elements that route packets through the network. Some network elements may include a distributed architecture, wherein packet processing may be distributed among several subsystems of the network element (e.g., line cards).
A network element may be configured to execute instances of one or more services. Broadly defined, a service may include a subsystem of a network element configured to carry out a defined functionality or task of the network element. In some embodiments, a service may be embodied in a program of instructions embodied in computer readable media and configured to, when read and executed by a processor, cause the processor to execute the functionality or task of the service. Examples of services may include Service Operation, Administration, and Management (SOAM) Continuity Check Messaging (CCM), SOAM path monitoring (e.g., including delay measurement and fault monitoring), Ethernet Virtual Connection (EVC) path monitoring, Link Capacity Adjustment Scheme (LCAS), and/or Management Virtual Local Area Network (MVLAN).
Because services executing on a network element consume processing resources, a processor may be limited in the number of services it may simultaneously execute. In certain cases, a network administrator may instantiate numerous instances of various services for simultaneous execution on a network element. Initially, the services may not exceed the processing resources upon instantiation, but may later exhaust the resources when a plurality of the services simultaneously require processing resources in order to carry out their specific functions, which may lead to performance degradation. Disadvantageously, only upon exhausting resources may a network administrator learn that a particular configuration of services exceeds processing resources, through observation of degraded operation.